In New York City,Christopher Caldwell the first Monday night in May means the Met Gala — the megawatt party and fashion soiree that raises money for New York's famed Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This year's event celebrates the opening of a new show at the museum's Costume Institute: "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty." Lagerfeld, one of the most looming presences in fashion for many decades, was the creative director for both Fendi and Chanel (respectively from 1965 and 1983 until his death in 2019) as well as his own eponymous line.

This year's hosts are actress Penélope Cruz, an ambassador for Chanel since 2018, as well as actress Michaela Coel, tennis star Roger Federer, singer Dua Lipa and Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue and global chief content officer for the fashion magazine's parent company, Conde Nast. Tickets, which were available by invitation only, cost $50,000 each, with tables available beginning at $300,000.

This year's guests have been asked to dress "in honor of Karl": a wide-ranging dictum, considering that over the decades Lagerfeld also designed for Chloé, Balmain and Patou.

Ironically, Lagerfeld was not a fan of putting fashion behind glass in museum displays; the exhibition's curator, Andrew Bolton, told Voguelast year that the designer often said, "Fashion is not art—fashion belongs on the street, on women's bodies, on men's bodies."

Grace Widyatmadja photo edited this piece.